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EU debates France's plans to refound capitalism

A detailed French set of proposals on how
to reform the global financial system was at the top of the agenda on Tuesday
as European Union finance ministers met in Brussels, reported dpa.

The plans "can still be better, but
it's a good start ... I think we'll turn them into European plans," Dutch
Finance Minister Wouter Bos said as the meeting opened.

His Austrian counterpart, Wilhelm Molterer,
backed that sentiment, saying that "some countries might judge one or
another detail differently, but the direction is absolutely right."

The EU is currently trying to forge a
common position on how to reform the world's financial system following the
widespread chaos caused by the collapse of the United States market for
poorly-backed housing loans known as subprime mortgages.

On November 15 the leaders of the world's
20 most powerful developed and emerging economies, the G20, are set to meet in Washington to discuss global reform.

EU leaders are due to meet on Friday to
prepare a common stance for the summit.

"Europe has a great responsibility to
take part in the creation of the new financial architecture ... It is also
right that Europe should speak with one voice at a summit such as the G20,
because it's a question of defining a common goal," Molterer said.

And ahead of the Friday meeting, the French
government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, set out an
11-point plan which it hoped that the EU and G20 meetings would endorse.

The plan calls for the G20 summit to
demand, among other things, increased transparency in financial markets, the
compulsory registration and monitoring of credit rating agencies, and new codes
of conduct to deter top managers from taking "excessive" risks.

They should also push for the global
harmonization of accounting and bank capitalization rules, closer cooperation
between national regulators and "a change of culture in the governance of
financial institutions towards sustainable value creation," the paper says.

However, while EU states largely support
the principles underlying the proposals, some diplomats say that the French
plan is too detailed to be presented to the G20 summit at this stage.

Also at the meeting, EU finance ministers
are set to formally approve a 6.5-billion-euro (8.2-billion-dollar) loan to
help Hungary out of its current balance-of-payments difficulties.

They are further set to meet
representatives of sovereign wealth funds from Norway, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and with finance ministers from Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.